{"id":710356,"date":"2026-01-21T07:28:25","date_gmt":"2026-01-21T07:28:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/710356\/"},"modified":"2026-01-21T07:28:25","modified_gmt":"2026-01-21T07:28:25","slug":"edinburgh-locals-stunned-as-military-jet-flies-low-over-homes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/710356\/","title":{"rendered":"Edinburgh locals stunned as military jet flies low over homes"},"content":{"rendered":"

Residents and plane-spotters alike took to social media to share their reactions to the huge aircraft, which belongs to the Royal Air Force.<\/p>\n

Residents in Edinburgh and West Lothian were stunned after a huge military jet passed over their homes on Tuesday afternoon. The impressive aircraft was captured flying low as it descended towards Edinburgh Airport<\/a> at around 4pm.<\/p>\n

It has been identified by aviation enthusiasts as a Boeing C-17 Globemaster III, used by the RAF<\/a> and US Air Force to transport troops, supplies and large pieces of equipment. The unusual sight caught many locals by surprise.<\/p>\n

According to data from online aircraft tracker Flightradar24, it had flown north from RAF Northolt, an air base in Greater London.<\/p>\n

Adrian Krauklis spotted the jet as it passed over the village of Newbridge<\/a>, just over two miles from the airport.<\/p>\n

He captured the moment it flew incredibly low over the main road and the motorway before disappearing out of sight.<\/p>\n

He told Edinburgh Live: “I was absolutely surprised. Who wouldn’t be? It was magnificent.”<\/p>\n

Aviation aficionado Stuart Young-Murray was at home in nearby Livingston when he was also lucky enough to spot the plane while it was higher in the sky.<\/p>\n

He often sees various aircraft approaching Edinburgh Airport’s runway from the west but was surprised at today’s sight.<\/p>\n

Stuart clarified the jet was a C-17 belonging to the RAF. It measures 174ft in length, with a wingspan of 169.8ft.<\/p>\n

He said: “I’m an aviation enthusiast or ‘avgeek’ as we’re sometimes called, with an interest in photography. We don’t often see military aircraft like this at Edinburgh so it was a nice surprise to see this one today.<\/p>\n

Several other locals took to social media to report they had spotted the aircraft and share their shock at how low it was flying – and how loud it was.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Residents and plane-spotters alike took to social media to share their reactions to the huge aircraft, which belongs…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":710357,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8816],"tags":[17542,748,1102,11500,4884,712,16,15,27436],"class_list":{"0":"post-710356","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-edinburgh","8":"tag-armed-forces","9":"tag-britain","10":"tag-edinburgh","11":"tag-edinburgh-airport","12":"tag-great-britain","13":"tag-scotland","14":"tag-uk","15":"tag-united-kingdom","16":"tag-west-lothian"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115931912982997883","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/710356","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=710356"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/710356\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/710357"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=710356"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=710356"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=710356"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}